What if you could seamlessly integrate new, positive habits into your daily life without feeling overwhelmed? On this episode of "Believe Like a Boss," we unlock the secrets to habit stacking, a powerful technique that can transform how you approach your goals.
Drawing from my experience as a national wellness coach for Weight Watchers (now WW), I share actionable insights on how to pair new habits with existing ones to create a harmonious routine. Listen to real-life examples, like a client who swapped mindless snacking during TV time for the productive activity of crocheting. You'll learn the definition of a habit, how to practically apply habit stacking, and why consistency is key to unlocking your true potential.
We also cover the importance of self-trust and how showing up consistently can build your confidence over time. Discover practical applications of habit stacking in activities like social media planning and language learning during commutes, along with tips to set and meet your own consistency goals.
It’s not just about adding new habits; it's about enjoying the process and staying true to yourself. For anyone looking to build new habits, gain confidence, or seek personalized coaching support, this episode offers a treasure trove of guidance and inspiration. Tune in and take the first step toward a more intentional, thriving life!
ENJOY THE PODCAST? Leave us a 5-star review so more people can find us!
What if you could seamlessly integrate new, positive habits into your daily life without feeling overwhelmed? On this episode of "Believe Like a Boss," we unlock the secrets to habit stacking, a powerful technique that can transform how you approach your goals.
Drawing from my experience as a national wellness coach for Weight Watchers (now WW), I share actionable insights on how to pair new habits with existing ones to create a harmonious routine. Listen to real-life examples, like a client who swapped mindless snacking during TV time for the productive activity of crocheting. You'll learn the definition of a habit, how to practically apply habit stacking, and why consistency is key to unlocking your true potential.
We also cover the importance of self-trust and how showing up consistently can build your confidence over time. Discover practical applications of habit stacking in activities like social media planning and language learning during commutes, along with tips to set and meet your own consistency goals.
It’s not just about adding new habits; it's about enjoying the process and staying true to yourself. For anyone looking to build new habits, gain confidence, or seek personalized coaching support, this episode offers a treasure trove of guidance and inspiration. Tune in and take the first step toward a more intentional, thriving life!
ENJOY THE PODCAST? Leave us a 5-star review so more people can find us!
Hi, friends, and welcome to Believe Like a Boss. I'm your host Life Coach, nandi Camille. Join me as I teach you how to smash your goals and expand the possibility of your life through mindset management, spiritual alignment and authentic action. I'll teach you how to create what I like to call a life of thrive, with ease and authenticity. It's time to play with what's possible. Are you ready? Let's go.
Speaker 2:
Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of Believe Like a Boss. I am your host, life Coach, nani Camille. Welcome back, my friends, I'm so excited for this week. We are talking about habit stacking. We are talking about habit stacking and this is one that I'm like oh my gosh. I can't believe that I haven't already talked about this on the podcast, because it's something I definitely worked on with clients. This is something that I actually picked up first when I was a national wellness coach for Weight Watchers now WW. Habit stacking was something we talked about a lot and it was something that I again now use with my clients and with myself when it comes to building new habits.
Speaker 2:
Now, first, let's back up. Why do we want to create a habit? Let's talk about a habit. Actually, let's look up the Google definition of a habit. I did not look this up before the episode, so let's find the definition. The definition of habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. That's interesting that it's stated that way. The second one of a habit this is a verb a long loose garment worn by a member of a religious order or congregation. Oh, I didn't know that, did I?
Speaker 2:
know, that I think I might've known that Something in my brain is tickling like I might've learned that once. Okay, but the first definition is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. So when we're talking about habit stacking today, we're talking about when you want to build a new habit on top of something that you're already doing, that regular, settled tendency that Google is telling us. Habit stacking helps us to then form a new habit, whether you're wanting to. In the context of WW, most people were wanting to lose weight. So when we talked about habit stacking, what we really talked about was how do I add fitness to my day to day in a way that makes sense, in a way that doesn't mean that I have to go to the gym for an hour out of my day if that's not in alignment for me at this time, makes sense to my lifestyle, makes sense to my wallet, whatever it is, and so for a lot of friends, it was the act of all right, while I am brushing my teeth, right, it's taking a habit that you already have. So here's the definition. Let me back up y'all. I'm excited.
Speaker 2:
The definition of habit stacking is habit stacking is a strategy where you pair a new habit with an existing one, creating a stack of habits that are performed in sequence. This approach leverages the power of your current routines to build new, positive behaviors. Okay, so this is for the friend that maybe you want to start the blog, you want to start the business, you want to lose weight? That was often what we were talking about with WW was friends wanting to lose weight, friends wanting to tone up their bodies, friends wanting to no longer binge eat while they were eating and I'm actually working on binge eating with one of my clients right now and being able to be mindful about how she is feeding her body, and mindful when she's watching TV, cause right now she's mindlessly putting food into her mouth, right Cause the television is in front of her, which makes sense. So we're actually doing this with her habit stacking. Okay, if she has the habit of watching television and there's nothing inherently wrong with that, right we're going to take when I say habits, these are things you're naturally doing throughout your day brushing your teeth, washing your face, taking a shower. Maybe you watch TV every day after work. Maybe you have a glass of wine every day when your day ends. Maybe you walk your dog, whatever it is that you normally regularly do For this client.
Speaker 2:
She will regularly, to decompress after work, watch her favorite television show. She chooses different ones. She loves television. She really enjoys it, right, but what she doesn't enjoy is that while she's watching TV, she's munching. She's eating snacks, and it's mindlessly. It's not that the snacks are bad or wrong, it's not that eating snacks is bad or wrong. It's not that eating snacks is bad or wrong. It's that she wants to be intentional when she eats. She doesn't want to just eat for the sake of sitting in front of the television. Those are calories that she does not want in her body, necessarily, right, because it's mindless versus maybe she chose to have an apple and sit down. That's not what's happening right now, though.
Speaker 2:
So what we're playing with with her, the habit is watching TV. We're going to replace what's in her hands, and she's going to stack a new habit on top of it. Right now, her habit is eating while she's watching television. We're going to actually replace this habit, so this is a little bit of a combination. This is like level two Habit stacking itself is not replacing a habit that already exists. It's stacking one onto one that already exists. In this case, she does have the habit of eating while she watches TV. So we are replacing a habit, we're replacing it with why don't we do something with your hands? That is more fun, more intentional. And as we started to unpack this, she's like oh my gosh, I used to crochet, this was so much fun, I want to do it again. So now she's going to go back into crocheting so her hands can be busy while she's watching television. So that is an in-between example.
Speaker 2:
I think a more direct example would be brushing your teeth in the morning, right? Something that I'd say most people do, because you don't want to walk around with stank breath. So most people brush their teeth, wash their face in the morning. That's a habit that you already have, right? And so if you're wanting to maybe tone up your legs, that's what your goal is. It is bathing suit season, it's summertime and you would just like to tone up your legs a little bit.
Speaker 2:
One of the habits you might stack on top of brushing your teeth because you're already doing that, you're already going to brush your teeth might be doing squats while you're brushing your teeth. Might be doing lunges in your bathroom while you're brushing your teeth, because you already have the habit. You already know that, without fail, you will brush your teeth because, again, you don't want to walk around in the world with stinky breath. I am that human I have almost trauma from that. I remember brushing my teeth as a kid, going to church and my sister's still telling me about that breath, telling me that my breath stink. So as an adult, I brush my teeth so much because I don't want my breath to sink, and so that's a really easy one for me to stack a habit onto. And so when I've been in many seasons of my life where I do want to tone up a little bit, I will very easily throw on some squats while I'm brushing my teeth, lunges while I'm brushing my teeth. This is also really great for adding balance. If you're wanting to be more balanced, I mean like physically standing on one foot while you're brushing your teeth for half of brushing your teeth and then standing on the other foot for the other half. Or stand on one foot while you brush, stand on the other while you rinse if they're equal time is a really great way to start to work on your balance right, simply in a way that doesn't mean that you have to go and take a yoga class every night. Now, if that's your jam, go to the yoga class every night, but if you're finding that that doesn't fit into your lifestyle right now, then don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:
Here's the psychological basis for habit stacking. Habit stacking works because it takes advantage of the brain's tendency to link behaviors. When we connect a new habit to an existing one, you're using a trigger that is already established in your routine, so that trigger again might be brushing your teeth. I'm already going to do that. I now I'm going to stack on balancing on one foot onto my routine. I already watched television after school. So what after school? I went to my childhood for a second After work, after school. If you're a child listening to this, if you're still going to school right now and that's your habit, and so I want to add on maybe that's when you do a plank. I'm going to do a 30 second plank while I'm watching television, I'm going to do 40 sit-ups. I'm specifically using the examples of fitness as habit stacking in this example, but you can really use it for anything, right?
Speaker 2:
If you again have a habit of brushing your teeth in the morning and you're wanting to meditate more, maybe in the morning, if that's your only quiet time before everybody else is up and moving around. Brush your teeth, turn off your bathroom lights literally put a little towel on the floor, fold it up, find a place to line your back up against and set a timer for three minutes. Get your meditation in the morning. There's no excuse, right? There is a little three minute window. There's a one minute window. If you want to, you can have a one minute meditative moment and stack it onto brushing your teeth, which you already do. So this truly works for whatever new habits you're wanting to create.
Speaker 2:
If you're saying I never have time to work on my business, I'm so tired after work. I work 40 hours a week. I work 50 hours a week, but I have this dream of this business and I just never have the time. I never have the energy. What habit can you stack a three, five minute segment onto? I know that it seems like okay, what am I going to get done in five minutes? But five minutes versus nothing is going to move the pendulum forward, right? If you can only have five minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes to work on something, that 15, 20 minutes is going to move you forward. Imagine again we love the hiking example here. You going hiking right, and let's say that this is a really long journey. You standing at the base every single day is different than you walking five minutes every day, than you walking uphill 20 minutes every day. That's what it's like for your goals, right? It's not about hitting it overnight.
Speaker 2:
I know that in this current culture, we're so excited about myself included the people that go viral. What a wonderful thing where one of your reels, whatever goes viral, your YouTube channel goes viral. Now you have all these followers and all of a sudden, that turns into profit, and so that is very exciting, absolutely. But don't let the a few things here. First of all, I'm segueing off of my habit stacking for a hot second. But first of all, if you focus on only going viral, if your total focus is on going viral, right, then I would offer that you're missing the opportunity to be your most creative self. Because when we're focused in that area and take this and it sticks to you, leave it if it doesn't.
Speaker 2:
But often, when we're focused on I must go viral, I must go viral. It's very outward. It's extrinsically motivated. You're extrinsically focused. You're focused on the outside. You're motivated by outside. Therefore, you're swayed and motivated by other people's opinions, because that's truly what influences us going viral versus here's.
Speaker 2:
What actually truly influences us going viral is us being our most creative self, but that doesn't come from focusing on being viral. That comes from focusing on being our most authentic, creative, fun, expansive, aligned self, not focusing on being viral by focusing on your true craft, by focusing on what truly excites you, brings you alive, and showing up from that place knowing that it's possible for me to go viral. But that's not my focus. My focus is on bringing value to the world and this is how I bring value, through my art, through my service, whatever it is right. When we are showing up from that place of excitement, of true, authentic creative energy, just because it's truly what lights us up and yes, of course, we might have that business part of us. We want to make money. That's part of why we're doing this thing, but when it's coming from this place of this is how I give value to the world. This is what I'm excited about.
Speaker 2:
That is more likely to get you to be viral, rather than you focused on studying all the things, all the different viral videos that have ever occurred, and then trying to make yourself fit into that. Here's the other thing I'm going to say about that how do you want to show up in the world? When I think about those two things, I would much rather show up from an authentic place, and maybe it takes me six months to gain momentum, a year to gain momentum and be able to do it from a place of. I'm doing this because I enjoy it. I do it because I enjoy learning about it and do it because I enjoy sharing about it, versus coming from a place of. I must go viral. I need to figure it out Right. I don't want to show up from that energy. That is usually the energy where people are like what? I don't know, something's off here. I don't know what's off, but something is off.
Speaker 2:
There's a total side tangent on the mindset of going viral and what I think will serve you and what will not. But when it comes to habit stacking, let's tie it to that. Let's say for you, you want to post more often, you want to post consistently. First and foremost, please identify what it means for you to post consistently. For some people that's three times a week. For some people that's once a week. For others that's daily right. You get to determine what that means for you. Instagram, the people of the world would say best practice is at least three times a week, but that does change. So truly, come home to you. How often do you want to post? How often do you want to interact with your audience? Then from there, let's say, you decide that it's going to be three times per week that you'd like to post.
Speaker 2:
Think about the habits that you're actively doing throughout the week. It doesn't have to be another habit that you only do three times a week. But let's say again, it's something like brushing your teeth, washing your face. Let's say it's walking your dog. You walk your dog every single day because your dog needs to go out, or you at least let your dog out every single afternoon because your dog needs to go out. Whatever version you do, you could stack onto that habit. When I'm doing that, I'm going to open up my notebook app and I'm going to put some thoughts in there on what I might post, on what I might take pictures of, of where I might do my next photo shoot, of what I might do for my next reel, of what I want to learn about when it comes to social media, marketing and selling right. Spend that time, stack the habit on top of that. After I walk the dog and I come inside and I hang that leash up, I'm going to set a timer for 10 minutes. I'm going to spend 10 minutes doing my post for the day or for my friends that maybe you want to do it all in one sitting.
Speaker 2:
If you go to church once a week, or if there's something like a friend gathering that you do once a week, I'm going to use church because I feel like that's a really simple example. But for Sundays, let's say you're going to church every Sunday at 8am, 10am, whatever it is, or your child has soccer practice on Thursdays this once a week thing, right? Could you before or after Not during if it's church, and probably not during if your child is playing a full on game but could you before, after or during work on your social media for the entire week If you know you're going to bring your child on Thursday to soccer practice and you're going to sit there for an hour and you don't really want to watch, it's totally up to you. I want everybody to always listen to what feels best for you. If going to soccer practice is your time to connect with your child, please do that. If for you it is not necessarily that time, use that time right. If it's not that time, maybe it's afterwards, right After I bring the kids home. That's when I'm going to do it. If your brain's like, that doesn't make sense to me, because then I'm making dinner for my family, that's fine, but this is what I mean with play.
Speaker 2:
Look at the different habits that you're already doing in your life. Where might you stack the things that you so deeply want to make time for, whether it's posting consistently, maybe it's working on your finances or checking in with your budget, or doing outreach for your blog, doing outreach for your business, not working with people. Whatever it is that you've been wanting to do. Lose the weight, move your body, gain more balance. First of all, establish how consistently you want to do it. If you're saying I want to gain balance and I want to work on it a little bit every day, find a habit you do every single day and apply it.
Speaker 2:
I'll give a real example for me. I'm learning Spanish. I've been slacking lately, if I'm going to be totally honest, but the habit that I was using was on my drive home. When I'm driving home at the end of my day, that's when I want to use, or that's when I want to do my Spanish lesson. I'm in the car for usually about a half hour driving from Denver to home because I live in the burbs. But when I'm doing that drive at the end of the day, that's usually what I'm getting my Spanish lesson and that's when I put in my, I turn it on and a minimum of 15 minutes, so it doesn't even have to be my whole drive, but at least for 15 minutes of my drive on my way home. On a daily basis that's Monday through Friday I'm getting that lesson, I'm getting that practice and I'm stacking the habit on top of driving home. Right, so check in.
Speaker 2:
What is it that you're wanting to create a habit out of? What is it that you're wanting to do that you keep saying you don't have time for? How often do you want to do that thing? Where in your life are you already doing something that often? Tack it onto that and play with it Again. I want you to check in.
Speaker 2:
Sometimes the ego, the brain, gets into all or nothing, thinking I need to do it all at once. I need to do all my posts for the entire month at once. I need to plan it, or nothing at all. If that doesn't fit your lifestyle right now, again, where can you then find five, 10 minutes to work on one post at a time, two posts at a time? If you can't plan out your whole month, can you plan out a whole week? If you can't plan out a whole week, can you plan a post for today and tomorrow, so that way, tomorrow's already done, you can do the next two days. Right, it's about taking incremental steps because, again, if you are standing at the base, not taking steps, you will not reach the summit. You need to take steps, my friend, and even if that's a five minute step, a two minute meditation step, a 20 minute workout step, whatever increment you can fit in in alignment, stacking onto something you already do is progress, and I would offer and I want you to check this out for you, but I would offer that you will always feel better after doing the thing you said you wanted to do. You will always feel better.
Speaker 2:
The brain likes to talk us out of it because it doesn't want to be uncomfortable. Right, when you're doing something for the first time, the brain says I don't want to do. I don't want to do this, I don't. I have neural pathways that are already set. These things are already done. So when you are creating a new habit, expect your brain to fight you a little bit, expect it to be like I don't know. Even if it's something you want to do, you want to lose weight and that means you have to move your body, some part of you is going to be like I don't know, because I haven't been doing that, I haven't been consistent in that. So that is going to require me, as the brain, to create a new neural pathway. And it's kind of like.
Speaker 2:
Think back to when you tied your shoes for the very first time, and maybe you don't remember that, but you could probably imagine that it was not easy, it was difficult, it was annoying. You didn't understand what was going on. I have to tie the bunny ear here and put the loop there. What do you mean? Right? And it took us time to practice and practice and practice to being where now you can tie your shoe without even looking. It's not a problem. But there was a time where it was right. There was a time you couldn't pour milk into a glass, right, you would have spilled it all over the place, and it took practice to build the neural pathway to now have the habit of I can pour something into a glass, I can tie my shoes, I can drive on the highway, I can merge lanes, I can write an email to someone. All of these habits that we now have are neural pathways that we had to build right, and so don't talk yourself out of it.
Speaker 2:
Learning as an adult feels extra hard because we talk ourselves out of it. We feel like we should know things already. We get upset when we don't learn fast enough. Give yourself grace. Do not try to take it all on or nothing at all. Take bite-sized steps. Take doable steps. Give yourself grace and cheer yourself on for showing up. You showed up. Every step you take up our metaphorical mountain is a step you have taken. Bravo, good for you for showing up, because you could have chosen to stay at the summit and maybe you've been at the summit for a really long time, I'm sorry at the base. You could have chosen to stay at the base, and maybe you've been at the base of the mountain for a really long time looking up and you're like I don't know, I don't know about this. Maybe you have. Don't judge. What would that look like? Watching a YouTube video on how to start a business, finally starting the Instagram handle, telling somebody about it, getting out a notepad and a pen and writing out your ideas, writing it in your notes section? What would be the first step today? Don't beat yourself up for not having taken steps already. Ah, you should have taken steps already. How come you haven't done this? No, no, that does not serve you. We don't have time for that.
Speaker 2:
Click in to what you want. Check in with how consistently you want to do it. Find a habit to stack it onto. Take your steps and adjust as you need to If you find that it's not working out. You're like I don't really like it at this time. I thought it was really going to like working out after my kids' soccer games, but I don't really like that. That's not working out. I'm gonna try this instead.
Speaker 2:
Give yourself the grace and space to try it out and also give yourself the grace and space to actually try something out. Don't just try it out once and be like mm. I don't know. Try it out multiple times. Right, but also truly listen to your gut. If you do and it is a clear this is not working. Then listen to that too, right? This is about trusting yourself. As you trust yourself and you show up consistently, you will become a more confident version of yourself. But you have to trust yourself. You have to lean into those inklings. You got this, my friends. As always, take what sticks to you, leave the. I would love it if you give us a five-star rating. Share it with your friends. If you're interested in one-on-one coaching, if this podcast resonates with you and you're ready for some one-on-one support support for you and your journey go ahead to nandikamilcom to learn more, or head over to nandikamilasme to sign up for your
